Fountain apparatus

ABSTRACT

Fountain apparatus wherein the water rotates a waterwheel for driving the same, with the waterwheel being operatively connected to closure members, each associated with a water nozzle, through a series of gears and cams so as to sequentially emit water through the series of nozzles responsive to rotation of the waterwheel.

United States Patent Inventor Mitsuo Inoue Ibaragi, Osaka, Japan Appl.No. 815,323 Filed Apr. 11, 1969 Patented Mar. 16, 1971 Assignee C.D.M.Kabushiki Kaisha Kishiwada City, Osaka Prefecture, Japan FOUNTAINAPPARATUS 5 Claims, 8 Drawing Figs.

U.S- Cl 239/17, 239/22 Int. Cl B05b 17/08 Field of Search 239/16- [56]References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,307,787 3/1967 Hall,Jr. 239/173,337,133 8/1967 Duerkob 239/20X 3,362,641 1/1968 Barnes 239/973,452,930 7/1969 Karbo 239/98X Primary Examiner-Allen N. KnowlesAssistant Examiner-John .I. Love Attorney-Oberlin, Maky, Donnelly &Renner ABSTRACT: Fountain apparatus wherein the water rotates awaterwheel for driving the same, with the waterwheel being operativelyconnected to closure members, each associated with a water nozzle,through a series of gears and cams so as to sequentially emit waterthrough the series of nozzles responsive to rotation of the waterwheel.

ALTERNATE WATER INLET PATENTED MARI e um SHEET 1 [1F 3 lw A a 7 a W mfl2m PATENTED MARI 6 l97| SHEET 2 OF 3 FIG. 3

ALTERNATE WATER INLET I ll mm u v INVENTOR MITSUO INOUE WW 2amPATENTEUHARI BISYI 3,570,764

sum 3 [IF 3 FIG. 5

INVENTOR FIG. 8 MITSUO INOUE Fountain apparatuses have previously beengenerally designed to spout water forcibly through nozzles by use ofelectric motors, with such apparatuses being characterized by requiringfrequent maintenance and repair, in addition to the initial relativelyhigh cost due to their complicated construction.

A principal object of the present invention is to provide a fountainapparatus in which the entire mechanism is simply constructed andutilizes water as the driving power for mechanism operation and as thejet water spouted out of the nozzles. In one form of the invention,water can be used simply as jet water without being utilized as thedriving power.

Another object of the invention is to provide a fountain apparatus inwhich the water spouted therefrom can be atomized, when required, bymeans of a step plate provided removably in front of each nozzle.Alternatively, the apparatus can be used as an ordinary fountain merelyby taking these step plates away.

A further object of the invention is the provision of fountain apparatushaving an upper cover which is provided with water holes, the waterrunning in through said water holes being distributed to each nozzlewith said grooves connected to nozzles respectively. With conventionalfountain apparatus, the water holes and nozzles are directly connectedby pipes, with cleaning of the pipes requiring dismantling of the same,a difficult and troublesome task. By the above-mentioned constructionaccording to the present invention, it is made very easy to clean thenozzles of the apparatus simplyvby removing its upper cover.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention is described below infurther reference to the annexed drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a fountain apparatus according to thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view of the FIG. 1 apparatus taken alongline 2-2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional view taken on line 3-3 of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a horizontal sectional view taken along line 4-4 of FIG. 3;

PEG. 5 is a bottom plan view of a modified form of spray head cover;

FIG. 6 is a vertical sectional view taken along line 6-6 of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a fragmentary plan view of a further modified form of sprayhead; and

FIG. 8 is a vertical sectional view taken on line 88 of FIG. 7.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT In the embodiment illustrated inFIGS. 1-3, the main body A of the fountain apparatus according to theinvention is formed from a machine frame 6 which comprises an upperplate 2 having a series of water openings ll provided therein. Sideplates 3 extend downwardly from the upper plate 2, with middle plate 4and bottom plate 5 extending between the side plates 3 to support bybearings a main rotating shaft 8. The shaft 8 ha a small gear 7 fittedthereon, and a waterwheel lid is fixed to the main rotating shaft 8 atthe bottom end thereof which extends under bottom plate 5.

Between the middle plate 4 and bottom plate 5 is a secondary rotatingshaft 13 supported by bearings and fitted with a large gear 11 andanother small gear 12, the large gear 11 being engaged with the smallgear 7. Between the upper plate 2 and bottom plate 5 there is a rotatingtransmission shaft 16 supported by bearings and carrying a large gear Mand a worm gear i5, with the large gear 14 being engaged with the smallgear 12 fitted on the secondary rotating shaft 13.

A spur gear 17 is provided to engage the wonngear l5 fitted on therotating transmission shaft 16, and a'seriesof cams I8 having camprojections 18 of different shapes are fitted on a camshaft 19 andpositioned at both sides of said spur gear 17. Pawls 20 are provided toengage with each cam projection 18 on the camshaft l9, and pivotedmembers 21 approximately L-shaped are supported between the side platesSprings 23 are provided to resiliently urge upwardly the adjacent arm ofthe pivoted members 21 thereby positively closing the series of wateropenings 1 formed in the upper plate 2. Rubber valve plates 28 arecarried by the arms of the pivoted members 21 to seat around theopenings 1 thereby completely closing the same as seen in FIG. 2. Thesprings 23 are mounted on an arm extending between the plates 3.

The main body A is mounted on a fountain frame 25 having an opening 24cut upward obliquely and tangentially through the sidewall thereof. Awater inlet pipe 29 is mounted in the opening 24 and coupled to a sourceof water supply. A cover 27 is provided on which are mounted a pluralityof nozzles 26. A plurality of relatively small spray openings 30 areformed in the cover around the central group of nozzles. An alternativewater inlet pipe 31 is provided in the central, bottom portion of theframe 25. Through adjustment of the earns 18 to provide access to all ofthe openings 1, it is possible to direct water through the alternativeinlet 31 to the jet nozzles 26 without rotating the waterwheel 10.

DESCRIPTION OF ALTERNATIVE EMBODIMENT FIGS. 7 and 8 show a modificationof the embodiment example of the invention illustrated by FIGS. 1-3. Inthis modified embodiment, removable step plates 33, each generallyL-shaped in cross section, are fixed in front of certain of the nozzles26 on the upper cover 27 by means of screws 34. The vertical legs of thestep plates 33 are in the form of concaved arc faces 32 whereby whenwater spouted from nozzles 26 hits said concaved arc faces 32, thespouted water will be scattered vaporized into the air. While capablethereby to atomize jet water from nozzles 26, said step plates 33 can beremoved easily by taking off screws 34 in order to change the fountaininto an ordinary one.

DESCRIPTION OF FURTHER EMBODIMENT FIGS. 5 and 6 show a furtherembodiment of the invention, with the upper cover 27 in this form beingprovided with circular, semicircular or rectangular grooves 35concurrent to water holes 1, thereby letting the water coming in throughthe water holes be distributed to each arcuate grouping or nozzles 26.It is therefore not necessary to connect the water holes 1 directly withnozzles 26 by means of pipes like conventional methods, and cleaning ofthe nozzles can be done very easily by simply removing the upper cover27, which is retained in place by stop screws 36 which engage screwholes .37.

I claim:

1. Fountain apparatus comprising a fountain frame, a waterwheel mountedin said frame and adapted to be rotated by a source of watercommunicating with the interior of said fountain frame, a plurality ofjet nozzles mounted in said frame above said wheel and adapted toreceive said water and emit the same from said apparatus, and aplurality of openings associated with each of said nozzles, saidopenings being adapted to be closed by pivoted members operativelyconnected to said driving wheel through a series of gears and cams.

2. The fountain apparatus of claim 1 further including removable stepplates provided in front of said jet nozzles.

3. The fountain apparatus of claim 1 wherein circular, semicircular orrectangular grooves concurrent to sad openings are provided on the frameletting the water that comes in through said water holes be distributedto each nozzle with said grooves each linked to respective nozzles.

and emit the same from said apparatus, and means in said frame defininga plurality of openings adapted to sequentially communicate with waterentering said frame, said openings being axially aligned and each onethereof being associated with at least one of said nozzles by apredeterminately shaped groove formed in said frame, and pivoted membersoperatively connected to said driving wheel for closing said openings inpredetermined sequence.

1. Fountain apparatus comprising a fountain frame, a waterwheel mountedin said frame and adapted to be rotated by a source of watercommunicating with the interior of said fountain frame, a plurality ofjet nozzles mounted in said frame above said wheel and adapted toreceive said water and emit the same from said apparatus, and aplurality of openings associated with each of said nozzles, saidopenings being adapted to be closed by pivoted members operativelyconnected to said driving wheel through a series of gears and cams. 2.The fountain apparatus of claim 1 further including removable stepplates provided in front of said jet nozzles.
 3. The fountain apparatusof claim 1 wherein circular, semicircular or rectangular groovesconcurrent to sad openings are provided on the frame letting the waterthat comes in through said water holes be distributed to each nozzlewith said grooves each linked to respective nozzles.
 4. The fountainapparatus of claim 1 further including an additional water hole providedat the bottom of the fountain frame through which water is conductedinto said frame and spouted out of said jet nozzles when all of the sameare open and said waterwheel is not rotating.
 5. Fountain apparatuscomprising a frame, a waterwheel mounted in said frame and adapted to berotated by a source of water communicating with the interior of saidfountain frame, a plurality of arcuately arranged jet nozzles mounted insaid frame above said wheel and adapted to receive said water and emitthe same from said apparatus, and means in said frame defining aplurality of openings adapted to sequentially communicate with waterentering said frame, said openings being axially aligned and each onethereof being associated with at least one of said nozzles by apredeterminately shaped groove formed in said frame, and pivoted membersoperatively connected to said driving wheel for closing said openings inpredetermined sequence.